What is Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver is not only to create web sites, but can also be used as an efficient and reliable tool to maintain and secure websites. It provides the management capabilities to help you keep track of entire web document created for the site, as well s all the supporting files required for adding graphics, media and special effects on the pages of the web document. Dreamweaver also provides you with the tools for publishing your site by copying the web document and supporting files from the computer you created them in the web server to make them accessible to viewers.
A Dreamweaver site is a collection of WebPages and assets. You can create WebPages on your computer , upload them to a web server and maintain the site by transferring saved updated files. You can also edit and maintain websites that were created without using Dreamweaver.
Setting up Dreamweaver Sites
The first step while creating a website is to plan the structure of that website. For achieving the best result, you should design and plan the structure of your website before you start working on the page that the site will contain. The next step is to set up Dreamweaver so that you can work on the basic structure of the site. In case, if you already have a site on a web server then you can use Dreamweaver to edit that site. After you plan the structure of the website or if you already have a website on a server, you should define that site in dreamweaver before you start working on that site. Setting up a Dreamweaver site is a way to organize all of the documents associated with a web site.
About Dreamweaver Sites
A website is a collection of linked WebPages and assets with shared attributes such as related topics, similar design, or shared function. Dreamweaver is a tool to create and manage websites. You can use it to create individual documents as well as complete websites.
In dreamweaver, the term “site” refers to a local or remote storage location for the webpage that belongs to a website. You can upload your website to a web server, track and maintain links on the site and manage the shared files.
For taking full advantage of various features of Dreamweaver , you should define the site in Dreamweaver. To define a Dreamweaver’s site, you only need to set up a local folder, which we discuss later. Once a local folder is set, then to transfer files to a web server for developing web applications, you must add information for a remote site and testing server. A Dreamweaver site basically consists of three parts depending on the development environment and the type of website being developed. The main parts of a Dreamweaver website are:
- Local root Folder: Local root folder is a collection of the WebPages or files you are working on. Dreamweaver refers to thi folder as a local site. This folder can be on your local computer or it can be on a network server. If you work directly on the server, Dreamweaver uploads all the files to the server every time you save them.
- Remote Folder: The remote folder stores all the created WebPages for testing, production and collaboration. Server resides in the remote folder to in which you store your documents. Dreamweaver refers to this folder as “remote site” in the files panel. Typically, your remote folder is on the computer where your web server is running.
The local and remote folders enable you to transfer files between the local disk and a web server. This makes managing files easy for the website developer.
- Testing Server Folder: The folder where dynamic pages are stored and processed is known Testing server folder. Dreamweaver uses this folder to generate dynamic content and to connect to databases while you work.
